Earth-working and excavating machines, such as wheel loaders, cable shovels, drag lines, electric rope shovels (ERS), excavators, and front shovels, include implements generally used for digging into, ripping, or otherwise moving earth, rocks, debris, or other materials. Such implements commonly are various types of buckets having shapes and dimensions dependent on the type of bucket and size of the machine employing a particular bucket. These implements are subjected to abrasion and impacts that cause them to wear. To prolong the useful life of these implements, various shrouds, or wear members, can be connected to the earth-working and excavating implements at areas which experience wear. These wear members may be connected to the implements using a retention system that permits replacement of the wear members when they become worn to the extent that they should be replaced.
Some implements which have been provided with wear members have required that one or more components be welded to the implement in order to permit retention of the wear member in place on the implement. Other implements have employed various multi-component retaining systems wherein one or more of the components must be hammered in place to hold a wear member in position on an implement. The use of welded components that may need frequent replacement themselves due to extreme conditions of wear may be problematic, particularly where maintenance must be done at a work site. The use of retaining systems that are required to be hammered in place also may be problematic and difficult to put in place and remove. A shroud/wear member retention system that is both weldless and hammerless, that is to say, one that does not require retention parts to be welded to the implement and does not require retention parts that must be hammered in place, would be both beneficial and desirable. In addition, an assembled shroud/wear member retention system should have cooperating components that are arranged in a manner to avoid premature failure.
One retaining arrangement for a wear member is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,145 to Ruvang that issued on Feb. 3, 1998 (“the '145 patent”). Specifically, the '145 patent discloses a bucket that includes an attachment system for a shroud, or wear member, that includes a component that the '145 patent characterizes as a retainer, the retainer being welded or otherwise fastened to an implement lip. The '145 patent discloses that a J-shaped bolt may be inserted through an opening formed vertically through a rear portion of the wear member and rotated until a threaded end of the bolt is horizontal. The J-shaped bolt may then be received in a channel of the retainer of the '145 patent when the wear member is installed on the lip portion of the bucket. Subsequently, washers, a compression member, for example a spring, and a nut may then be installed over the threaded end of the J-shaped bolt and bear against the retainer to bias the wear member toward the lip of the bucket.
Although acceptable for some applications, the wear member retaining arrangement of the '145 patent may not have broad applicability. In particular, the wear member retaining arrangement of the '145 patent may not be sufficiently robust to endure the extreme conditions of use in large, heavy-duty machines. For example, the J-bolt of the '145 patent is inherently under tension. Tightening the J-bolt enough to sufficiently secure wear members onto an implement may cause metal fatigue and bolt failure, resulting in dislodgement of the wear member and implement damage, especially with heavy-duty use in large machines. In addition, the system disclosed in the '145 patent is specialized for use with the welded-on, or otherwise secured, retainers on the implement lip. This may be problematic when such retainers require repair and/or replacement, particularly during field operations.
The disclosed wear member retention system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.